Can Creativity Really Be Enhanced?

I suppose the answer to the title question is obvious. If it weren't possible there would be no point in publishing this blog. 

Actually, I became interested in creative thinking during my years in developing communications equipment. This was between 1966 and 1981. Of course, my engineering knowledge has been outdated for a long time, but my knowledge of how to apply creative thinking methods has increased dramatically.

This is partly because I returned to graduate school and earned a doctorate in psychology, and followed it with studies of work by Michael Michalko, Dr. Win Wenger, and numerous other experts on creative thinking.

I have since developed a certificate in Creativity and Innovation, and am beginning a group coaching program for electrical design engineers that will be affordable. You can find more information on this on my website: lewisinstituteinc.com. 

A Sample

One of the easiest and perhaps most useful methods of stimulating creative thinking is the SCAMPER method. Each letter stands for a different word or list of words that you apply to get ideas. Here is a partial listing:

Substitute

Change

Amplify

Modify

Postpone, permutate

Erase, Explode

Remove, revise, reduce

Michalko has a deck of cards called Thinkertoys that can be bought from Amazon and used to randomly apply the various words to a problem you're working on.

In subsequent blog posts, I will present other ideas and suggestions for dealing with creativity in groups, avoiding group think, shutting down the nay-sayers, and much more. I invite you to subscribe so that you will receive notifications of new posts as they occur. I warn you, I am not good at doing precisely scheduled writing, so they will be irregular.

All the best,

Jim Lewis